Skullflower
by n0xi0us.n1rvaNa
Summary: REDONE! Kid x OC. Sai is a vampire who wound up working with the DWMA. What happens when she returns to Shibusen after the awakening of the Kishin with her guardian and meets Kid? Will follow a mix of the show and the manga. Crappy summary, please read!
1. Prologue and Chp 1: A Tale of the Past

**DISCLAIMER:** I am using some ideas from Final Fantasy and characters from Devil May Cry, though I would not count this as a crossover as I am merely using the face, name, and personality of that character. The storyline of the game in which the character(s) came from has nothing to do with how I will use them in this fanfiction. You have been told! I take no credit for the ideas or characters taken from either game!

**authors note: **pictures on my site (aeonsoul234 . webs . com) for this story have also been updated (trying not to make my character so mary-sueish in looks and personality... -.-" haha I mellowed her looks down)

* * *

**Prologue**_  
_

_The Al Bhed; a dying clan of elite vampires who, unlike the rest of their kin, fought to defend humanity rather than hunt and slaughter them. They made a special kind of weapon for themselves, being unable use demon weapons. Those weapons were called Machina(mah-key-nuh). Much like demon weapons, they had the ability to amplify, compress, and "resonate" with the soul wavelengths of the user. Bound from being charged by a shot of the wavelength of an Al Bhed Vampire, they could be handled by no one else. The Machina were able to change into two different weapons from analyzing the first wavelength shot into them. These powerful weapons were thought to forever be used for good... That was until the day that the "Sanes" as they were called, lost sight of everything they had fought for... All of the sanity that they'd retained over the years vanished in the blink of an eye and the Machina was no longer used to protect the innocent, but to kill them..._

**_.!.!.!._**

_The laughter rung throughout the empty and distraught church, full of both insanity and pleasure. It came from a woman, a vampire with the trademark tan complexion of the Al Bhed and eyes, once lavender, that glowed blood red. She had been stabbed by her opponent, the katana pierced through her head into the wall behind her, right in the middle of her eyes. The Devil in human form in front of her, who in this case was the lesser of the two evils, had almost accomplished his task of eliminating the Al Bhed race. Now he could detect only one more vampire soul wavelength.  
_

_"Looks like I got the last laugh..." She said, continuing to laugh._

_"Why's that?" The Devil asked, his grip around the other end of his sword still tight._

_"You think you've won; That you've killed us... b-but you're wrong... You'll never kill us... We'll always be here... We were born to keep the human race in check." With that said, she grabbed the arm of the devil that was on his sword. He tried to pull away, but she wouldn't let go. As she stabbed the blade of the sword further into her head, her hands glowed red. An energy flowed into the devil and then the glow in her red eyes faded. She let go of his arm and died smiling. The Devil yanked his arm away and gritted his teeth, clutching his arm in pain as the glow about it faded away, seeming to fade into his skin. He ripped his katana, Yamato, out of the vampire's head violently, completely disfiguring her skull. He walked calmly through double doors, deeper into the church, until he came upon a staircase that led underground to what looked to be a dungeon. Two cells were there; one holding a small boy about the age of twelve with white hair and crystal blue eyes and the other holding a girl. The female was a lot younger than the boy. She was also just about a spitting image of the Al Bhed Vampire the Devil had just killed. The young boy perked his head up as he heard steps coming down. His face lit up when he saw that it was his father, the devil. _

_"Papa!" He cried, running over to the bars. His father smiled gently at him and touched his face through the bars. The boy backed away from them and his father broke him free of his cell. When he was out, the boy jumped into his father's arms. The young boy looked the same exact way his father did when he was that age._

_"Stay here, son. We'll be going home right after this is finished." the devil said. His son nodded to him and stayed in his spot as his father rose and walked over to the other cell. The girl inside sobbed as she cowered away towards the wall, as if she knew what he was going to do. The devil broke the bars of the cell with one slice of his sword and then kicked them down. He walked up to the girl and stood tall before her. She covered her head with her arms and curled up into a little ball on the floor, shaking with fear. A feeling of guilt ran through his heart as their eyes locked for a second. Her eyes... they weren't blood red as all of the others had been. They were a pale lavender and full of innocence. She was too young for the insanity to invade her. Her body wasn't developed enough for it to run its course. He picked the girl up by her throat and slammed her against the wall. She cried louder as his grip tightened around her throat, though he stopped squeezing when he heard something behind him. As the devil looked behind, he saw his own son on his knees, holding his neck as if he were choking._

_"Vergil!" He cried to his son. _

_"P-Papa i-it h-hurts!" Vergil yelled in between gasps for air. The Devil let go of the little girl. Both his son and she coughed and gasped for air. The Devil sighed as he went into deep thought. He turned to the girl again, who was still on the ground. He decided for the sake of his son, he would keep her alive. Maybe with close observation, he could see how the insanity took its course within the vampire and somehow cure it.  
_

_"Come, girl... You won't be dying to-" Before the Devil could finish his sentence there was a blinding red glow and the sound of a familiar laugh to both the Devil and the girl. She covered her head once again as the devil screamed in pain. The red glow that had been ejected into his arm from the vampire before spread to all of his body._

_"I told you... You can't win!" a voice echoed. And with that, the mighty devil melted into a heap of ash before the eyes of his son..._

_**.!.!.!.**_

_Another dungeon. The girl was lying on the floor of it in the darkness. She'd been in there for a week now. After what had happened in the church, the boy who her mother had bound her to with magic had brought her back to a rather large mansion. She felt horrible... Vergil, who was only twelve at the time, had thought that she had killed his father. She tried to tell him it was her mother, but he would believe her. He had almost killed her, enduring the pain it was causing to himself. At the last moment, he felt his life slipping away and spared hers in order to keep himself alive. After an unknown amount of time to the little girl and a long time of consideration of in Vergil's mind, the young Devil decided to let the vampire out...  
_

* * *

**Chapter One:**  
**A Tale of the Past - Flashbacks**

"Vergil... It's hot and I'm hungry!" I said as I stopped walking. At this time, I was still only five, though I'd known Vergil for about six months now. The day that he let me out had been my fifth birthday.

"I know it's hot, we're in a desert, and I just fed you, Sai..." Vergil said. He turned around and walked back up to me. When he was in front of me, he turned around once again and bent down on one knee. I got on top of his back and held on tightly to his neck with my head leaning on the back of his as he held my legs and got up, starting to walk again.

"Not that kinda hungry... I mean real hugry! Like food hungry... We haven't eaten for days..." I said. It was true. At the time, I didn't know, but we'd been wandering around in the deserts of Nevada. We were completely lost.

"Don't worry... Soon we'll reach another town and we'll have plenty to eat." Vergil said.

"Can we get a hotel to sleep in this time? I don't wanna sleep outside again..." I said.

"We can try... I'm not promising you anything though." Vergil said. Even though both of us had hooded cloaks protecting us from the sun, we were both fully affected by his rays. It felt like he was shining more brutally today than the last three days we'd been stuck in the desert for. Vergil's walking had slowed significantly. After a while, his walking completely stopped and collapsed. I rolled off of him, looking up at the sky. The sun hurt my eyes, so I shut them.

"Vergil... Are we gonna die here...?" I asked.

"No, Sai... We're not..." Vergil answered.

"Do you promise?" I asked.

"I promise..." Vergil answered.

Vergil crawled over to me hugged me to him, blocking the sun from hitting me as best as he could. I fell asleep in his arms.

**.!.!.!.**

As Vergil promised, we didn't die, thought it was a close call. Luckily, we had been picked up and brought into what looked like a school. Now, both of us were inside of a room that looked like it went on to the ends of the earth in all directions with a circular platform in the center. On that platform was a large mirror. It's "walls" had clouds on them that moved. I'd been told that this room was called "The Death Room" and that it belonged to someone called Shinigami. I didn't understand who that was until I saw him emerge from the mirror in the center of the room. I was scared of his cloaked figure, even though his mask seemed funny looking to be a skull. I gazed up at him with fear on my face from behind Vergil and gripped tighter to his pant leg.

"Hi hi!" Shinigami said in a rather comical voice. Then he motioned for some people who were behind us to come forward. Two men walked up next to Shinigami. They looked to be about the same age. One of them had silver hair and glasses. He had a more reserved, not to mention more intelligent look, while the other, a man with shoulder length red hair, was more outgoing in a way. Vergil eyed them cautiuously and I remained behind him. I had never really been around people before and was naturally shy as well as frightened.

"It's okay. We're not going to hurt you." the man with the red hair said as he bent down to my height. He reached his hand out to me. I slowly walked up to him and looked at him strangely.

"What are you talking about 'dangerous'? This cute little girl couldn't hurt a-" The man's little speech was interrupted by him screaming "OW!" when I grabbed and bit the hand that had been extended and was waving in front of me. Vergil and I had been seperated when they were treating us in the hospital, so I hadn't been fed in quite a while when it came to blood. Shinigami laughed.

"I knew she was a vampire." he said.

"V-Vampire?!" the man with red hair said in surprise.

"Sai! You can't just go biting people who save us like that!" Vergil said, prying me off of his hand. I let go at once, seeing that this didn't please Vergil too much.

"But I'm hungry, Vergy!" I replied, wiping off some of the blood that had dripped from my lips. Vergil sighed and took my hand. He quickly apologized to the man with the red hair and then looked at Shinigami.

"I'm sorry, but I need to feed Sai before she gets bothersome." he said. Shinigami nodded to him and he walked out of the Death Room, dragging me out of it as well. He led us to a bathroom and locked the door behind him as we entered it. Vergil hugged me as he leaned against the door as slowly slid down to the floor. I went down with him and adjusted myself onto his lap when we were on the floor. Vergil lowered the collar of his shirt on the right side of his neck. He flashed me a smile and rustled my hair with his other hand, meaning that it was okay for me to drink. I returned his smile and sunk my fangs into his neck. Both of us winced a little from the pain we shared.

**.!.!.!.**

We had re-entered the Death Room. It appeared as though Shinigami, the red haired man, who's name I learned was Spirit and the other man with the glasses, Stein, stopped talking abruptly when we did so. I skipped at Vergil's side happily, holding his hand once again. Spirit came up to me and Stein went up to Vergil. I held on tighter to Vergil's hand as I looked up at Spirit. Spirit flashed a smile with me and bent down so he was eye level with me.

"We just have to talk to Vergil for a little bit, Sai-chan. So, you're going to stay here with me and Shinigami-sama while Stein goes with Vergil in the other room, okay?" Spirit said.

"No! I wanna stay wi-" I started.

Vergil interrupted me by calling my name. I abruptly stopped speaking and looked up at him. He smiled at me.

"Just stay here okay? I'll be back soon. Everything's going to be fine. I promise."

"O-Okay..." I said reluctantly. He brought his arm up, handing me off to Spirit. I let go of him and held Spirit's hand as we walked towards the platform where Shinigami was. I watched Vergil and Stein's backs as they walked away and got nervous again. I had never been apart from Vergil up until now. I screamed for him and went to run to him, but Spirit picked me up. I fussed around, trying to escape from him.

"Sai! It's going to be alright!" Vergil called.

I stopped moving around after Vergil called back to me and Spirit put me down. I stood in the same spot and started to cry. I stopped when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up and saw Shinigami. He held out a Sugar Daddy candy in front of me. I wiped my tears away and shakily took the candy from him, as if he were going to turn and bite my hand off at any second.

"You don't need to be scared of me, little vampire." Shinigami said, giving me two pats on the head. I smiled at him and then sat down, fully occupied with the Sugar Daddy. My fangs got stuck to the caramel candy instead of piercing right through it, which was something that had never happened to me before. Usually I gobbled every candy I ate in a matter of seconds since my fangs easily pierced through them. I had both of my hands on the stick of the Sugar Daddy, trying to tug it off of my fangs.

"I would think that you'd know how to work your way with children, Spirit-kun." Shinigami said as he made a stuffed toy of a lion appear in his hand and handed it to me.

"M-Maka was never really fussy, so I didn't really..." Spirit stopped talking and sighed as he watched me sitting down, sucking on the caramel candy while playing with the stuffed toy. I dropped the toy and screamed, clutching my stomach as I felt an immense amount of pain.

"Oi!(Hey!), what's the matter now?" Spirit asked, bending down to my height with his hands on my shoulders.

"It hurts! You're hurting him!" I yelled before screaming again as I felt as if I were being punched in the stomach.

"I felt as if there souls were linked before... I didn't think that it would be in this way." Shinigami said.

"What are you talking about?!" Spirit asked.

"From the minute they walked in, I could see that the souls of Vergil and Sai had a bond forged by Al Bhed magic. Now I see they have an emphatic connection when it comes to pain... Go stop Stein from interrogating him now, Spirit. We'll have to get info from him some other way."

Spirit nodded to Shinigami and then bolted out of the Death Room. The pain stopped momentarily and Vergil was brought in with Stein and Spirit. I ran up to him, dropping the toy, and hugged him tightly.

"They hurt you!" I said, looking up at Vergil with my arms still around him. He smiled at me, his lip with a little dried up blood on it, and rustled my hair.

"Don't worry about me..." he said.

* * *

**PRESENT DAY: 11 YEARS LATER**

"Don't worry about me." Those words probably came out of Vergil's mouth the most. Ever since I could remember, he was always saying that. What happened after that, you may ask. Well, out of the goodness of Shinigami's heart and since he saw that I wasn't really affected by the "insanity plague" that went around the rest of the Al Bhed, he let me stay in Shibusen. He originally objected to Vergil staying with me since he was a "lowly Devil", but he had to allow him to stay since he was linked to me and more importantly, he was the son of the only Devil who had sided with the humans in all of history; Sparda.

I had always told Vergil that I'd forgotten how we met and everything about my parents, but that was a lie. I remembered all of it, though I never felt a drop of hatred or even anger towards him. At first, he wanted to push me away by locking me up, and even kill me, but he wasn't like that. Vergil was kind, unlike what his cold and nonchalant exterior displayed. I stopped drinking blood from him when I was eight. It was then that I realized that I invaded his privacy and personal thoughts by drinking his blood. Depending on how much I drank, for the first hour at the least, I knew everything that he thought. After that, I lost that "connection" I guess you could call it with him and then I would feel every little emotion that he felt for the next day or so. I couldn't do it anymore. More than anything, he shaped me into the person I am now. He was the one who initially trained me. He was also definitely the one who raised me. I would've been dead a long time ago if it wasn't for him. Other than raising me, he also taught me about my Al Bhed background and actually helped me in finding machina when I decided to search for it. The machina became my initial weapon. I had charged it with my soul energy about four years ago, when I was thirteen. Before that, I was trained with a double bladed katana that was crafted by Vergil himself. It's blades, made of pure diamond, were parallel to eachother on the handle they were on and could never be broken. It had been my weapon since I was nine.

Right now, we were walking around in the streets of Berlin, Germany. About a year ago we'd been given a big book of missions by Shinigami. We were also told not to come back until all of them were completed. It seemed rather pointless to me since the missions we were doing would normally be given to one or two star Meisters and the DWMA in order to collect Afreet souls for their weapons. Machina could never turn into anything more than what they were initially, there was no "Death Scythe form" of a Machina. The only thing I could do to make my Machina more powerful was to defeat another Al Bhed in a _"__Machina uv Sydlr"_, a "Match of Machina" in which the Al Bhed would fight in a duel to the death for the other's Machina. This was something created later when the clan spiraled into Insanity.

"Shinigami-sama must really hate us..." I said as I walked a little behind Vergil.

"Everyone hates you..." said the Machina that lay around my waist in the form of a skull belt buckle. Machina are unusual things. Though they're machines that act in the place of demon weapons, who are in fact human, can communicate with their users and have small inklings of personality sometimes due to the wavelength of their user. Because they can only be charged with soul energy once, their users are the only ones who can understand them, and they can only understand what's spoken to them in Al Bhed. Each Machina has a unique "voice", which sounds like a compilation of different choppy computer tones and pitches, white noise, and static, is created the second they're charged.

"Everyone does not hate me!" I yelled back at Ikki, the name I'd given my machina, as I pounded on "him" twice with the side of my fist. Out of the blue, Vergil stopped walking. I continued to yell and pound on Ikki as I walked and bumped into Vergil.

"What's the..." I stopped talking after seeing that Vergil's head was hung. There was a dark vibe coming from him. I looked up at the sky; It had gotten considerably darker since clouds covered the it. That wasn't the only odd thing about it though. The entire sky was the color of blood as well as the lightning that beamed out of it.

"W-What's happening?!" I yelled as it seemed a storm was brewing.

"Can't sense anything... source unknown..." Ikki said. Of course he couldn't sense anything... This kind of vibe wasn't something that something with no emotion could sense since there were no wavelengths with it. As the lightning and thunder raged above, a wild wind picked up, blowing papers and trash that was on the ground everywhere. I clutched my head as I got a flash of what looked like three eyes. It was as if they were staring into my soul. I closed my eyes and crouched down, trying to get the terrifying image to go away. I knew that Vergil got the same flash in his mind since he had activated his soul. I looked at him through the storm that had appeared. Finally, he answered.

"The Demon God... has been awakened..." He said. The storm continued for a couple more minutes and then it was gone as well as the feeling I was having that seemed to be drawing me closer and closer to insanity. Vergil fell forward and I caught him abruptly, slowly kneeling down to the ground and placing him in my lap.

"Are you okay...?" I asked. Vergil had always been one to keep to himself, but I knew that things like this were his weak point. And if it was as he said, the Demon God, he definitely wouldn't stand a chance at keeping his sanity... Though his mind wasn't tainted, it was because of what he was; A Devil. He would be easily commandeered by such a powerful and evil force. He didn't answer. I squeezed his hand tightly and called his name loudly. He shook his head and it seemed that he'd woken up from a trance of some sort. Then he leaned up from my lap and brushed himself off as he got up. He extended his hand to me and I took it.

"Sorry..." He said. I sighed and hugged him tightly.


	2. Chp 2: The Return

**note: **everytime Sai speaks to Ikki, it is in Al Bhed... I'm not going to write that everytime, lol.

* * *

**Chapter Two:  
The Return**

"42-42-56... ehh, what was that last number again..?" I said, turning away from the mirror I was writing on.

"The number was '3.14159-"

I interrupted Ikki in Al Bhed "Oh, stop being obnoxious for once, will you?!"

"564. The last number is 4." Vergil answered from the wall he was leaning on. He hadn't been very social since the whole "Demon God Awakening" thing... Not that he was normally the social type anyway.

"Right... 4..." I said. I exhaled on the mirror again and wrote the entire number.

"I hope they're alright..." I said.

My question was shortly answered... by Shinigami not picking up. Never was there a time when Shinigami couldn't answer a call to his mirror. He was stuck in Death City!

"Well, that can't mean anything good..." Vergil said.

"Uh... Maybe his mirror is broken...?" I said with a little chuckle.

"Not the time, Sai... The fact that Shinigami isn't there means that he's not in the Death Room." Vergil said.

"That's a no-brainer.. Sheesh, I was just trying to lighten up the mood... Not like we can do anything from all the way over here right now." I answered.

"We should go back." Vergil said.

"Go back where you said everyone hates you?" Ikki asked.

I pounded on Ikki again. "I told you before! Everyone does not hate me!"

Then I turned to Vergil "We haven't finished all of our missions yet... But I guess this is an exception to return there..."

"Ya think..?" Vergil asked as he started walking away from the mirror.

I sighed. "This cannot mean anything good... Looks like my idea of going back home and doing nothing for a while is out of the window."

"You're out of the window..." Ikki said.

"...THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!" I yelled, beating on Ikki's belt buckle form with both of my hands.

"You don't even make an-" Ikki began.

"Don't start..." I interrupted.

* * *

"Ugh... I forgot how freakin' hot the sun is over here!" I yelled.

Once again, we were making our way through the deserts of Nevada to get to the DWMA. I was getting fried to a crisp. Though my clan of vampires couldn't be killed by sunlight... We were very easily sunburned, unlike our darker complexions portrayed.

"Temperature is 85 degrees farenheit. Humidity at 60%... It is a little hot, but you're just being a baby." Ikki said.

"Thank you SO much for your input, Ikki... I don't get it... How are you so obnoxious?! Am I really that bad of a person that you turned out like this?" I replied.

"Ask yourself that." Ikki retorted.

I looked up at Vergil ahead of me. "Are you sure you know where you're going?"

"Of course I do! We've gone through this desert hundreds of times!" Vergil shouted back at me.

"More like... maybe 20 times... and 20 times more than a year ago... So we're definitely lost..." I said.

* * *

**- TWO HOURS LATER -**

Vergil turned around at me. His eyes glowed red and he growled at me beofre screaming "I'M NOT LOST!" at the top of his lungs.

"Okay! Okay! You're not lost... You're just... eh..." I said.

Ikki helped me out "taking unnecessary detours is what you're trying to say"

"Yeah! Taking a lot of unnecessary detours!" I repeated with an uneasy.

"You have the vocabulary of a piece of celery." Ikki stated.

"I DO NOT!" I yelled at him.

"Well, if you don't stop asking me if we're lost, I'm gonna keep taking detours until you look like a lobster..." Vergil said.

"Okie dokie... Keep my mouth shut, I get it..." I answered.

Vergil sighed in relief and turned around. "Thank you."

"Just make sure you take us the right way this time..." I said as he was about to take his first step forward.

* * *

"Woah..." I uttered.

"What's that for?" Vergil said as we continued to walk towards the entrance to Shibusen.

"I guess I forgot how big it really is after not seeing it for so long..." I answered.

"Hmph... It's nothing special."

I grunted a little as I made a face and then punched Vergil on his left arm.

"Owch..." I said, rubbing my own arm a little. Vergil had barely reacted, other than being moved slightly to the right.

"Well that was dumb..." Ikki commented.

"What was that for?" Vergil asked.

"You're such a pessimist! Be happy for once!" I said.

Vergil stopped walking and looked at me. "What exactly is there to be happy about at this very moment? The Kishin has awakened. That's the entire reason why we're here in the first place."

I said nothing back to him. The smile that was on my face had melted away.

He turned around and started walking again. "And were you even looking at Death City while we were walking through it? It's in shambles..."

"I know..." I answered. We walked in silence the rest of the way. As we made our way to the Death Room, we stumbled into... a zombie?

"Vergil. Sai. You've returned. That is good news." the zombie said.

Both of us looked at him, completely dumbfounded... At least this was a good mood breaker.

"Sid?!" We both yelled.

"Ah, that's right. Last time you saw me, I was still human. I'm sorry for not informing you. I assure you, I am still very much the man I once was." Sid said.

"Y-You're a..." I started.

"Zombie..." Vergil finished.

"Yes." Sid answered nonchalantly.

"How did...?" I asked, still dumbfounded.

"It's a story for another time. You two should see Shinigami-sama before doing anything else. He will tell you what has happened." Sid said.

"Right. We were just on our way." I stated.

"Since you are here, I suspect that more than just Death City was affected by the awakening of the Kishin..." Sid said.

"Yes. We were in Germany when it happened. A storm brewed up and both of us could feel the madness wavelengths emitting from him from all the way over there. I can't imagine how strong they must have been here..." Vergil said.

Sid sighed. "We've got a tough road ahead of us... I won't hold you two up any longer. Shinigami-sama is waiting."

We nodded to him and then proceeded on our way to the Death Room. No classes were in session, as to be expected. It was weird walking through these hallways without being full of students. I knocked on the door to the Death Room before entering it.

The door opened and I heard Shinigami call "Come in! Come in!"

Vergil and I walked through the scythe adorned arches until we saw Shinigami standing next to his mirror on the platform. Both of us bowed as he saw us.

"Vergil! Sai! Good to see that you two have come back. Have you finished your missions?" Shinigami asked.

"We thought that the awakening of the Kishin was a good enough reason to come back without finishing." Vergil said.

"Hmm... I guess you could sort of say that somewhat..." Shinigami said.

Vergil and I got sweatdrops on the backs of our heads.

_"He doesn't even want us here after the Kishin woke up... Man he must hate us..." _I thought.

"I wasn't expecting you two to come, now I have to think of something for you two to do! Can't have you lounging around all day, can I?" Shinigami stated.

"Eh... I... guess not...?" I said quizzically.

"Shinigami-sama, I believe that the DWMA was created by you in order to prevent the Kishin from awakening. How did this happen?" Vergil asked. I knew that Shinigami's comical matter pissed him off to no tomorrow. He would've much rather preferred how Shinigami was in his old days. He thought that it was a little lowering of Shinigami to act in the matter that he did now. I on the other hand liked the comical side... The old Shinigami would've scared me just as much as he scared the little kids he tried to interact with.

Shinigami suddenly got serious "You haven't changed at all, have you Vergil? Wanting to get straight to the point so quickly... The Kishin, Asura, was awakened by a witch."

"What?! A witch?!" I said, utterly shocked.

"Yes. Her name is Medusa. . She had tried to make a Kishin herself using her son and his weapon, who I might add share on body since she replaced her son's blood with the melted down form of his weapon, the Demon Blade, Ragnarok. After that failed, she infiltrated Shibusen more than a month prior to awakening the Kishin. We had absolutely no suspicions of her since she was using Soul Protect to conceal herself. On the day of Shibusen's anniversary, one of her allies used an Independent type spell to isolate all of the meisters in Shibusen including myself. Only a few of our elite one star meisters along with Stein and Spirit were able to escape before the spell finished with Sid's help. They tried to stop Medusa from awakening Asura with her black blood, but they were unsuccessful. He was already aware that I was bound to Death City and escaped before I could do any real damage to him." Shinigami explained.

"Wow... That's... I don't even know what to say." I said after a long silence.

"What do you want us to do, Shinigami-sama?" Vergil asked.

"I have gathered half of the Death Scythes from the globe. Spirit is remaining here as my weapon. Marie is working as Stein's partner while Asuza searches for the Kishin." Shinigami answered.

Shinigami turned to me. "Sai, I want you to take care of as many missions as you can. You'll be paired up with some of the elite one star meisters to take care of some of the harder ranked missions. The Afreets will be acting up now that their God has awakened and no doubt something else big will brew up."

Then he turned to Vergil. "As a school, we have to keep the students here updated with what is happening and teach them about what they will be going up against. You have more knowledge of these things being a devil, Vergil. I want you to enroll as a teacher here and inform students about what Asura can do."

I clutched my arm and looked to my left a little nervously. I'd never really been separated from Vergil... Ever... Much less on missions. He was my safe place. I wanted to speak out, but Shinigami's orders were Shinigami's orders.

"You're separating us?" Vergil asked. His voice and expression had not changed from before.

"Yes. I think you've both had enough time together... Besides... I know Sai gets stage fright easily so she'd be no use helping you teach... and you need to work on your people skills!" Shinigami said, his serious tone fading away.

He put his hands on our shoulders. "You two will be fine without each other."

Vergil and I looked at each other. We could both see the nervousness in each others eyes.

"Now... Sai, go see Stein. I'm sure you're in need of a fresh supply of blood tablets. After that, you can go with Spirit and he'll introduce you to the meisters you'll be working with. Vergil, I want you to start teaching with Sid for now. I'll be needing him for some special missions coming up soon." Shinigami said.

"Yes, Shinigami-sama." We both said at the same time. We both bowed to him and began to walk out of the Death Room.

"One more thing!" Shinigami called after us. We both turned around.

"It's good to have you two back!" Shinigami said.

"It's good to be back!" I said with a smile. As usual, Vergil remained silent and stern.

I waved to Shinigami and then walked out of the Death Room with Vergil. We both stood still once we exited the room.

I turned to Vergil, putting on a fake smile. "Well, I'm going to go find Stein now for my tablets... Hope you don't get los- I mean 'take unnecessary detours' while you try and find Sid."

Vergil's expression didn't change. I would usually expect him to yell at me for saying he'd get lost, but nothing... At the back of my mind, the thought that Vergil never really cared about me was always in my mind. Maybe he just kept me around so that it was easier for him to keep an eye on me... A lot of Afreets and demons hated Sparda for betraying them, so if they ever found out about or connection, they could easily hurt or kill him through me. This thought had been lingering around my mind more often since Vergil had grown increasingly cold over the years.

My smile faded and I looked away a little. I sighed and turned around to go to Stein. As I took a step forward, Vergil grabbed my wrist and called my name. I turned around and looked at him.

"Be careful, alright...?" he said.

I saw... worry in his eyes. I smiled at him and pulled him into a hug.

"I will don't worry." I said, closing my eyes as I felt his arms tightly snug around me.

"You better not get me roughed up too much while you're on missions... I don't wanna end up collapsing on the floor and coughing up blood while I'm trying to teach, ya hear?" Vergil said.

I laughed and looked up at him. "I'll try not to."

Vergil smiled at me and then ruffled my hair.

"Hey!" I said, trying to fix it. Vergil laughed at me.

"Whoever's gonna be in your class is gonna be **_so_** happy... Hah! You teaching! You got stuck with the crappy job!" I said, pointing at him and laughing.

"Oh shut up! I hope Stein knocks you out and takes out your liver!" Vergil yelled.

"Well then you're liver would shut down or something like that too, ya idiot!" I yelled back.

Vergil grunted. I punched him in the arm and then began to walk away.

"See ya later! Vergy!" I said, waving back. After that, I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face... He definitely cared.


	3. Chp 3: Welcome Home!

**Chapter Four:  
Welcome Home!**

I sighed. "Man! I'm already tired from walking through the freakin' desert and now I have to walk ALL the way to Stein's lab... Sheesh... I just wanna go back to the apartment and sleep."

"You never stop complaining..." Ikki commented.

"You never stop... being mean!" I said, pounding the side of my fist on Ikki.

"Familiar wavelength detected. Human." Ikki stated.

"No duh! We're back home ya dumb-" Before I could finish speaking to him, I heard a crash coming from the infirmary. I stopped walking and decided to be nosy and check it out.

I creaked the door open slowly and saw Stein standing up. He was breathing heavily with his chair knocked over on the floor. I opened the door all the way and stepped into the office. He still didn't notice me.

"Stein... Are you okay...?" I asked.

Stein shook his head. He sighed deeply, turned around, and bent down to pick up his chair before sitting backwards on it. Then he looked at me, flashing a small smile.

"Sai-chan! You and Vergil finally came back... I'm guessing that its not because you finished your assigned missions, though, is it?" Stein greeted.

"You'd guess right if you were to say that... Unfortunately." I answered.

"You need some more blood tablets, I take it?" Stein asked.

"Yes. I'm running on my last bottle... I guess I would've had to come back anyway even if this all didn't happen." I said with a small smile.

"That's an odd thing to say..." Stein said.

"Why's that?" I asked.

Stein stared at me sternly. "I gave you enough for about two and a half years... One of those bottles has enough tablets in it for you to survive about four months."

My eyes went wide. "Y-You're joking r-right...?"

"You'd guess wrong if you were to say that... Unfortunately." Stein answered.

I remained silent until he spoke again. "You consumed more than twice the amount your body needed to survive off of in half the time..."

He paused for a second. "Tell me, Sai. When's the last time you had real blood?"

"I-I can't remember..." I lied, turning my head away.

"Alright then... Let's hope you keep it that way... I'll just leave you with this; You may want to make sure you're more conscious of your actions and maintain control over yourself at a time like this... As you get older, you naturally become more susceptible to the Al Bhed Insanity... I suspect that the madness wavelength emitted by the Kishin will have an effect at speeding it up. I also suggest that you keep an eye on that tether of yours... Vergil is still a Devil and the madness will be able to take hold of him easily as well..." Stein said.

I nodded to Stein. He wheeled over to the medicine cabinet across the room from where he was and opened it up. He looked around for a little bit and then stood up, reaching on the very top shelf. He pulled out an old pill bottle and blew the dust off of it.

"Ah, here we go! This should hold you down until I can make a brand new batch for you." Stein said wheeling over to me.

He placed the pill bottle in my hand. Before I could take it, he grasped my hand. I looked up at him.

"Remember, Sai... They're not madness suppressants... There's no such thing as 'madness suppressants'..." Stein said, releasing his grip on my hand.

"I know..." I said. I put the pill bottle in my pocket and then walked out of the infirmary, closing the door behind me.

"Well that was certainly a 'hello'..." Ikki said.

I didn't answer him. I was too deep in thought about what Stein had said. How could I have consumed so many tablets in such little time...? I shook my head and ran to one of the balconies, where I could be alone. I sat own with my back leaning against the railing of the balcony. Then I took the pill bottle out of my pocket and dusted off the label with my thumb, reading it over again.

"Directions: Immerse tablet in about 8 fl oz. of liquid.

Take ONE every TWO days."

I cursed at myself... I had been drinking one to three every day. The need for real blood was growing stronger. It was to the point that it was hard to control my fangs. The second a craving started, they popped out and it would be hard for me to retract them... The last time I had difficulty controlling my fangs was when I was a child and hadn't learned how to do it. Gaining control over fangs for a vampire was much like gaining control over claws for kittens. It's hard to retract them when the kittens are young, but they get more experienced with controlling them as they age. It was the same for vampires and their fangs.

It would've been great if I was able to drink Afreet blood, but if I did I risked more than tripling my chances of falling victim to the Al Bhed Insanity. Just as I started thinking about blood in general, even if it was Afreet blood at the time, I "showed some fang" as Vergil liked to call it.

"Fuck...!" I cursed.

Suddenly, the face of my first and last victim flashed in my head and the scene played over in my mind:

_There was a girl, not much younger than me, running. Running from an Afreet. I had spotted her from the terrace of the hotel that Vergil and I were staying at for the time being. The girl tripped and landed face first on the pavement below the hotel. The Afreet took this as its time to strike and propelled itself at her. Immediately, I jumped down to save her. Surprisingly, Vergil hadn't woken up when I did so. I landed in front of the girl and slammed the Afreet's head into the brick wall of the building next to me with a roundhouse kick. I looked back at the girl and was about to go up to her and help her, but I heard a distorted laugh. I turned back around to see the Afreet slowly rising._

_The Afreet stood up tall. It's torso resembled that of a humanoid, but it had eight limbs; Six rear legs that looked like spider legs with knives covering its feet and two arms with similar structure to the legs, but shorter and pointed at a different angle. It had a large head with a mouth full of sharp teeth that stretched from ear to ear, like a zipper to its head. It seemed to be permanently plastered with a creepy looking smile. It's red eyes gazed at me and it cocked its head as it continued to laugh. It rocketed towards me. I rolled out of the way to dodge it and then began dodging the swipes that it took at me easily. I could've easily used Ikki to kill this one, but for some reason, I felt like playing with it. My adrenaline started to rush as it roared at me and began swiping faster. I laughed loudly and then jumped up with an uppercut right to the Afreet's jaw. It got knocked off its feet and fell onto its back.  
_

_"Not so tough now, are you...?" I asked.  
_

_I crawled onto it and broke off one of its arms from its elbow. Blood gushed all over me, getting on my face. I licked my lips and at that very moment I felt as if all my senses had enhanced. I gripped the sword like forearm of the Afreet as it writhed in pain. Then I smiled and stabbed the arm into its head, right in between its eyes. I tore the arm out of the side of its head and there was a fountain of blood before the Afreet disappeared, only leaving its soul. I walked over to the girl she cowered away a little bit. One of her hands was clamped tightly around her neck. I licked my lips as I saw blood oozing from in between her fingers. I shook my head and smiled gently and extended my hand to her.  
_

_"Are you okay?" I asked.  
_

_She looked up at me and smiled, feeling a little more comforted. "I-I'm okay now thanks to you."  
_

_She took my hand with her free one and I pulled her up.  
_

_"What happened to your neck?" I asked.  
_

_She removed her hand from her neck. It wasn't a severe gash, but it was no paper cut either. Luckily for her, it hadn't hit any arteries... Or so she had thought.  
_

_"I was so scared... I'm so glad you came to help me. How can I ever pay you back?" the girl asked.  
_

_I couldn't stop staring at her neck. She had placed her hand back on it, but the blood was still slowly trickling down from in between her fingers.  
_

_"You're hurt. Let me help you." I said. I removed her hand from her neck and eyed it greedily... I had just consumed a blood tablet about two hours prior, but right now this girl's blood was driving me insane. She saw how I was just staring and tried to pull her hand, which I was still holding, away from me.  
_

_I couldn't take it... I had to have it...  
_

_I swung her around and she tumbled on the floor, letting out a yell. I walked over to her and grabbed her by the hair, slamming her head into the floor. She yelled again and ceased her struggle at this point._

_I picked her up and held her in my lap. I raised her head up to mine and licked her ear.  
_

_"You scared now...?" I whispered.  
_

_"L-Let me go... P-Please..." the girl whimpered.  
_

_I gripped the hair at the base of her neck firmly with my left hand and brought her neck to my mouth. I her wound and exhaled slowly on it. She began to struggle, so I sank my fangs into her neck, right into her wound.  
_

_She yelled, but stopped struggling again. Her blood flowed down my throat, causing a warming and tingling sensation where ever it went. It tasted sweet, yet had a kick to it. My heart began to race and I felt a tingling sensation that pulsed throughout my body with every heartbeat. I could feel her fear and it made me excited. She began to gasp for air, but I just held onto her tighter. Her heart rate as I continued to drink, but that only motivated me to drink more of her blood. I wanted to drain her blood until the very last drop. All that was in me was the urge to drink. Nothing else mattered..._

I hadn't noticed that I'd been biting my lip as I thought about the memory until warm liquid rushed into my mouth. The feeling of my own hot blood in my mouth was orgasmic. I licked at my lip greedily. The taste and feeling were enjoyable, but it wouldn't truly satisfy me. As i became entranced with the thought of my own blood, I bit harder into my own lip. The sudden pain shocked me out of my hunger and my fangs retracted. Now all that was in my mind was shame... What was I to become? What if Stein was right and I was slowly going insane? I tugged at the roots of my hair.

"No! I'm not like them!" I yelled. I got up and ran.

* * *

I let out a sigh of relief as I finished chugging the artificial blood out of the water bottle I had bought. I put it down gently on the table after screwing the cap back on the empty bottle.

"Well... At least I have this to distract me..." I said as I gazed at the dust pile our apartment had become.

"Overabundance of dust particles detected. I wouldn't help you even if I had hands." Ikki stated.

I grunted. "You're so lucky you're waterproof, you know..."

I got up and tossed the bottle towards the garbage can. It bounced off the side of the can and landed on the kitchen floor.

"You suck..." Ikki said.

"Oh, shut it! Will you?!" I yelled.

I got up and picked up the water bottle, dropping it into the trash can. A couple seconds later, Vergil walked through the door.

"How wa-"

Vergil interrupted me before I could finish talking "You know my lip swelled up for about five minutes cos' of you..."

I laughed nervously.

"About that... Uh... Um... You should wait until I finish cleaning! We'll talk later!" I said as I pushed Vergil out of the door against his own will.

I slammed the door shut behind him and locked it before pressing my back against it and sinking to the floor. I sighed deeply and touched my lip. Mine had swollen up for about an hour... Since Vergil was a Devil, he could've gotten stabbed sixty times in sixty seconds and by the next sixty seconds, all sixty wounds would be gone. The only way to kill him was to take off his head. I would've been the same if I drank human blood. Since I didn't I healed much faster than the average human, but not nearly as fast as Vergil. If you stabbed me once, it would take about four hours to close up and at least a day to fully heal...

I shook my head a couple times.

"Okay... Time to clean up!" I yelled as I bolted up with my fist in the air.

"Ikki, if you would be so kind to grant me with some music please." I said.

"No." He answered.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'NO'?! YOU CAN'T TELL ME NO! I'M YOUR CREATOR!" I yelled as I pounded on him with both of my fists.

"You need to stop illegally downloading music into me." Ikki retorted.

"Haha, very funny... NOW GIMME SOME DAMN HOUSE MUSIC!" I yelled.

Ikki made a sound that was equivalent to a fart for computers before he started to glow (**authors note: same kind of glow as overload has in Teen Titans**) in his belt buckle form. He swirled around my body, much like a snake would when about to constrict its prey, up to my head. His glow flashed once more as he became a pair of big headphones. I just had to think of the song I wanted that I had previously uploaded into Ikki's servers and it would play. It took me about four hours to clean the entire house spotless. Unfortunately, we failed to completely clean out the fridge before we left... So some of the old food had mutated so much that it probably would've tried to attack me if I touched it with my bare hands. Besides that, everything else was moderately clean as we had left it, only there was either some cob webs or a thin layer of dust covering it.

I opened the door when I was done to call for Vergil, but he wasn't there. I guess I shouldn't have expected him to wait 4 hours for me... I sighed and went into the closet next to out bathroom and grabbed a towel out of it before going into the bathroom. I closed the door behind me and took my gloves off first, tossing them on the floor. Then I touched Ikki. He swirled around my fingers as I flipped my hand over so my palm was facing up. As he pooled himself in my palm, he turned into a little 3x3 inch cube with a glow.

"I'm glad I don't have eyes or a stomach." Ikki said.

"And why is that?" I asked.

"Cos' then I'd have to keep myself from puking while seeing you undress." Ikki responded.

"I hate you sometimes... A lot of the time..." I said, restraining my anger. I placed him on the windowsill like I always did before I showered. Then I stripped off all my clothes and went in after turning the shower on. I started humming a song to myself as I washed my body... I was a lot filthier than I thought after the days of traveling and cleaning up the house. It was pretty gross. After washing my body and hair, I reached for my razor and began to shave. A little "ow!" interrupted my humming as I cut my leg while running the razor along it. I stared at the blood as it ran down my leg and found myself licking my lips as my fangs appeared. My tongue traced my left fang eagerly. The sharpness of my fang almost cut my own tongue. I scooped up some of my blood as I slid my fingers along it. I eagerly attacked the blood on my fingers as if it were the throat of a human, biting them in the process.

I snapped out of my blood lusted trance as I heard Vergil screaming and pounding on the locked bathroom door.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO YOUR FUCKING FINGERS, SAI?!" he yelled as he pounded the door.

I shook my head and looked down at the pointer, middle, and ring fingers of my right hand. They had scratches and bite marks all over them. There were about two deep ones where I'd bit down quite hard. I gripped my hand into a fist and sank to the floor as I leaned against the wall of the shower.

"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" I cursed as I pounded against the wall with my left fist. I couldn't hold it in anymore.

As I sat there in the shower, I cried like a fucking baby. I was ashamed of what I had just done and scared of what I would become...


	4. Chp 4: Meeting them Again?

**authors note: sorry for the extremely long hiatus! (again)  
**

* * *

**Chapter Four:  
Meeting them... Again?  
**

The second I opened the door of the bathroom, Vergil was there. He had a stern look on his face, as usual. He only wore his pants and had a towel draped over his shoulder.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" he asked.

"Sorry. Didn't know you were waiting for the shower!" I said, faking a smile.

"You were cursing in the bathroom while slamming your fist against the wall and almost broke your hand... Unless you were doing something I don't wanna hear about in there..." Vergil said. His face was still stern, even with his last sentence.

"It's nothing." I said, looking away from him. I blushed being slightly embarrassed that he would say something light that. Vergil took my right hand and raised it up to his face.

"What are you doing?!" I said, trying to jerk my right hand away from him as I held my towel up with my left.

"Mine healed too fast. I didn't get a chance to see what they looked like before they went away... Yours will be here for a couple hours at least." Vergil said, examining my hand as I struggled against him.

"They look a lot like bite marks, pretty deep ones at that... Couldn't wait for me to come home and cook dinner?" Vergil taunted.

"I said it was nothing!" I yelled.

He let go of my hand as I jerked it away once more.

"You're getting all emotional over it, so it's obviously not nothing... And besides, I spoke to Stein today." Vergil said, as he leaned against the border of the bathroom door.

I looked away again. I had no reply to what he had said since it was the truth.

Vergil pushed past me and entered the bathroom. He bent down and picked up all of the dirty clothes and tossed them to me. I almost fell on my face as I caught them all and glared at him. He tossed Ikki last. For the second that Vergil touched Ikki, it shocked him. I jolted a little at the pain.

"I coulda just got him, ya know!" I yelled.

"That's what you get for not being honest with me and taking so long in the shower... We'll talk when I'm done."

I groaned and walked out of the bathroom as Vergil slammed the door shut behind me.

* * *

I looked up from the book I was reading as I heard a knock on my door. Even though it was open, Vergil still had the decency to knock... which was rare.

"Can I come in?" he asked, poking his head through the door.

I sat up from my bed and closed my book before putting it down on the nightstand next to me. Vergil sat next to me on my bed and stared at me until I gave him a look that said "Soo...?"

He coughed awkwardly.

"You make it seem like you're about to give me a sex talk or something..." I said, trying to make him a bit uncomfortable... Just a bit. I had given myself a lot of time to calm down in the shower. Reading had also kept me distracted, but I still didn't feel like opening up to Vergil about what was going on with me.

"No, no... None of that... God, don't even talk about that. I'm not your Daddy..." Vergil said, his face flushing with redness as he looked away from me a little bit.

There was an awkward silence between us as we both stared in different directions at different inanimate objects in my room. I chose to stare at the striped pink and purple kitty clock on my wall. The clock was on its stomach. The lime green eyes on its smiling face shifted from side to side simultaneously with its tail, but in opposite directions.

"Sai..." Vergil said in worried voice.

I looked at him since any ounce of emotion was something I rarely detected in him... Not counting anger of course.

"I know about your cravings. I knew that they were bothering you even before Stein talked to me about it. You're a vampire. It's natural for you to crave human blood. I know you're doing your best to try and sate them without human blood... If you really need to, you know you can start drinking from me ag-"

"No!" I interrupted him.

"But... You need real blood." Vergil said.

"I told you before that I was never going to drink from you again unless I was dying. I can't do that to you again, Vergil. It's an invasion of your privacy and it'll just be proof that I don't have myself under as much control as I thought I did."

"What control, Sai?" Vergil asked. His voice had gone back to being emotionless.

I was taken back by what he said a little... Once again, because it was the truth. I was really starting to lose control of my hunger...

"You almost ate your fingers off just because of a little cut you got on your leg in the shower." Vergil stated, making me feel even worse.

"What right do you have to patronize me like that?! You have no idea what I'm going through! Just the sight of blood... my own blood! It makes me go crazy! You've never had to deal with anything li-"

This time Vergil interrupted me. "The Kishin."

"What?!" I asked, confused.

"You think I don't understand what it means to fight off what my instincts are telling me to do? I've been fighting them my whole life, Sai. I'm descended from a line of Devils... Devils are in hell for a reason. My ancestors slaughtered humans for the fun of it. The Kishin's damn madness wavelength has only stirred that instinct in me up. Stop being such a drama queen... You just started dealing with this now because I satisfied your instinctive needs before. Meanwhile no one was there to satisfy mine." Vergil said. His voice remained calm... but that was the scary part.

I looked away from him again. I couldn't believe that I almost blew up on him when I didn't even know what he was going through for all this time. The thought of the Insanity Plague swept through my mind. Was I really going to turn out like that? Would I lose myself just like the rest of the Al Bhed before me? The thoughts brought tears to my eyes.

I turned to Vergil. "I don't want to end up like them, Vergil... I don't want you to end up like the rest of the Devils before you either... I-I'm scared."

I broke down and covered my face with my hands. I felt Vergil's arms wrap around me as he pulled me close to him. I leaned against him and gripped his t-shirt as I cried into his chest.

"Don't worry... We'll get through this. We've gotten through everything together this far..." Vergil cooed.

"Look at me." He said, stroking my hair.

I looked up at him with my puffy red eyes.

"I won't let you go crazy only if you do the same for me. Okay?" He said with a soft smile.

I laughed a little.

"Okay." I said with a sniffle.

"Promise?" Vergil asked.

"Promise." I answered.

We hugged each other tightly. Vergil turned and kissed my forehead.

"You know, you're the only one that I really care about now. You're the only family I have." Vergil said.

"You're the only family I've ever had." I said. It was basically the truth. The only thing that I remembered about about my real family was my mother... When she was already insane... I had no idea who my father was or if I had any siblings, aunts, or uncles... Nothing. The only person that came to mind when I thought of family was Vergil and there was absolutely nothing wrong with that.

* * *

I sighed in relief as I laid back in my chair at the table. Vergil and I had just finished the lunch we had made together. I couldn't describe how nice it was to relax in the comfort of my own apartment in casual clothes (pics on my site aeonsoul234 . webs . com) with absolutely nothing to worry about for the time being.

I patted my stomach twice. "That was great! I'm so full!"

"Complimenting yourself again I see." Vergil said.

"I bet if I could taste, it would've tasted like crap." Ikki commented.

"Oh, shut it!" I said, slapping him once.

Of course, Ikki had a retort, but I ignored him since the door bell rang. Vergil started to get up, but I waved my hand to him as I got up and he sat down. I walked over to the door and stood up on my tippy-toes to see through the peep hole. It was Sid.

I opened the door and greeted him. "Hey there, Sid. What's up?"

"Good afternoon, Sai." Sid said nodding to me. He looked inside of our apartment and saw Vergil sitting down at the table.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting anything." Sid said.

"No, not at all. We were done eating anyway. Come in." I said, stepping aside so Sid could come in.

"Thank you, but I should be on my way soon. I have a lot of preparations for the restarting of classes and am in need of Vergil's help. I need to brief him a little about the classes he will be helping me teach for the meantime before he gets his own."

"No problem."

I turned to Vergil. "Ya hear that, Verg?!" I yelled to him.

"Yeah!" he answered with a wave after finishing his iced tea.

"I'll be in room 372 in the North building when you are ready." Sid said to Vergil.

Vergil nodded in reply.

Then Sid turned to me. "Shinigami-sama also said that he would like you to meet the meisters that you will be working on missions with today. Find Stein and Marie. They will be able to introduce you to the meisters."

"Okie dokie!" I said with a smile.

"Alright then. I'll get going. Have a nice day." Sid said with a little wave.

I waved back to him before he turned around and started walking down our stoop, which I now noticed was not a pretty sight. All the flowers that were previously there had long-since withered and had been replaced by ugly looking weeds. Ivy had made its way all around our steps and on the railings as well.

"Gotta work on that..." I said, closing the door.

I walked back over to the table where Vergil was as I started clearing plates away.

"Sid said to meet him in 273 North." I said.

"You mean 372 North..." Vergil said with a sigh and a sweat drop on his head.

I chuckled uneasily. "Whoopsie... Well, good thing you heard him!"

* * *

"Damn it, where could that man be?" I said as I paced around the courtyards of the DWMA dormitories. I was on my way back to the apartment after going all the way to Stein's lab to find him not their. I had checked all around the DWMA campus as well; No Stein.

_"All this trouble just to say 'hi'... Why can't I just meet them during my stupid missions?" _I thought.

My tongue traced my extended fangs. I had been trying to get them to retract for the past ten minutes, but it failed to work.

I cursed myself. "I_ knew I should've drank a tablet before heading out..."_

"Sai..?" I heard someone call.

I turned around and saw a familiar mop of red hair on a man in a suit with a cross shaped tie.

"Oh, hey Spirit! It's nice to see you again!" I said with a smile on my face.

Spirit walked up to me and rustled my hair.

"Hey!" I protested as I tried to fix it.

"Nice to see you too... Even though I assume the reason you're back is because of the Kishin." Spirit said. I saw his eyes flit to my fangs. He looked away and tried to make it seem as if he hadn't looked at them in the first place.

I blushed a little, embarrassed that I couldn't control them at the moment.

"Unfortunately that is the reason..." I said.

There was a little awkward silence between us. Mentioning of the Kishin could do that to just about any conversation... A crazed demon god who had just been awakened was not a subject anyone was willing to openly talk about.

I coughed to break the silence and then spoke. "Hey, Spirit... Do you have any idea where Stein is?"

"He's in the courtyard with Marie watching my daughter and some of the other students play basketball. Why?" Spirit answered.

"Shinigami said that I should see him so he could introduce me to some meisters and their weapons that I'm going to be on missions with."

"He was definitely talking about Maka and them. They're a tough crowd... Quite powerful for one star meisters. I'll show you back to the courtyard where the basketball court is then." Spirit said with a smile.

Spirit motioned for me to follow him as he turned around to go back in the direction where he came from. While we walked, he boasted about how the last time he saw me I looked so much younger and different and blah, blah, blah... He asked about Vergil once, but I could tell he just did it as a courtesy. He never liked Vergil that much. As a matter of fact, not many people took a liking to Vergil. After a short ten minutes of walking, we arrived at the basketball courts. I saw Stein sitting down on a bench with a woman with blonde hair and an eyepatch, who I guessed was the one that Spirit had called "Marie". I looked at the people playing basketball. They all appeared to be around my age. There was a girl with medium long blonde hair that was down. She looked rather confused on how to play basketball. On her team was another girl with short blonde hair who was constantly giggling and another older girl who had long black hair. They were playing against a team with a boy with blue spikey hair who was extremely loud, a boy with white hair, and another boy with black hair with three white half stripes.

"Game!" the boy with the blue hair yelled as he made a swish.

The team of girls all sighed.

"Sheesh! Why did you guys agree to play us again?" the boy with the white hair asked.

"We didn't agree! You three just said you were all on the same team and started playing the minute we set foot here today!" the girl with the long blonde hair yelled.

The one with the short blonde hair giggled. "It's ok, Maka! At least there was no punishment game this time!"

The girl with the black hair laughed at that. "You're getting better, Maka. We'll play again soon and beat them next time."

"YOU THREE BEAT US?!" the boy with the blue hair yelled before going into a fit of laughter that had him clutching his stomach on the floor. His rude act was met with a hard chop to the head with a book that the long blonde girl had left on a bench nearby.

"Hey, Sai!" Spirit called.

"Huh? Oh, sorry!" I said running over to where he was next to Stein and Marie. I hadn't even realized how distracted I got watching them... I had never really interacted with anyone my age. The only person I was close to was Vergil.

"Hello Stein." I said with a quick wave to Stein. He politely smiled back slightly.

I turned to the woman next to him with a smile. "Hi. I don't believe we've met. I'm Sai."

"Nice to meet you, Sai. I'm Marie, Stein's temporary weapon." the woman answered, returning my smile. We shook hands.

"I've been told that Shinigami wants you to meet the elite one stars." Stein said.

"Yes. He said that I should meet them before we go on missions together." I answered.

"Well, I don't see why that's necessary... Seeing that you've already met them before." Stein answered.

I looked at him weirdly. "I don't think so..."

"It's ironic that memory isn't a very reliable thing, isn't it?" Stein said.

"I guess..." I answered, confused.

"Anywho, I guess we should call them so you can introduce yourself again to them. I'm sure they'll remember you even though you don't seem to remember them." Stein said.

I nodded. Stein got up and started walking towards the group. I followed a couple feet behind him. What was he talking about? I had never met any other person my age before...

"Hey! Wait one minute before you start getting ready to play the next game!" Stein called to the group as they fussed over teams.

"Have we bothered you, Professor Stein?" the girl with the long blonde hair asked.

"Not at all... I'd all like for you to meet someone... for the second time. I'm sure you'll remember her." Stein said.

They all looked confused as I walked up to them. The girl with the short blonde hair was wearing a crop top. Her neck was fully exposed and the artery in her neck was pounding from having run around so much, even after the game. She was quite energetic. It enticed me so much that my fangs popped out once again, but I didn't notice. They had reverted when I was watching them play basketball since I had gotten distracted.

"Hello, my name is Sai." I said flashing them a smile, unawaringly showing fangs and all.

"Sai, this is Maka, Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki, Death the Kid, and Patty." Stein said, almost tauntingly to me. As he said each of their names, they all said a little hello to me.

He turned to the group. "Sai has recently come back with her guardian from being sent away on missions. Shinigami-sama would like for all of you to get acquainted, some of you reacquainted, with her since you will be doing missions together. You'll later be acquainted with her guardian as he will be teaching new courses in the curriculum once classes start up again."

"You..." Kid said.

"Me?" I asked, confused.

"She looks familiar to you too, Kid?" Maka asked Kid.

"Yes... She does." Kid answered.

He turned to me."You're a vampire, aren't you?"

I blushed, realizing that my fangs were out. I covered my mouth.

"Vampire?! There's no such thing as vampires!" Black Star said.

"Yeah, vampires are only things in books." Soul added.

"That is a little bit of a rash thing to say, Kid." Tsubaki agreed.

"WoOoO! Dracula!" Patty exclaimed.

There was a little bit of an awkward silence.

"I remember!" Kid said.

Everyone looked at him weirdly.

He looked at me.

"You... You used to bite me when I was younger! My father used to try and make me play with you and you'd bite me in the hand!" Kid said, clutching his right hand.

"What? You're crazy!" Black Star said.

"I think I'd remember if I bit you when I was younger..." I said, a little weirded out.

"Look! I have scars!" Kid said, waving his hand in front of me. As he said, there were small multiple pricks about an inch apart. They were hardly visible, but since his hand was right in my face, I could see them.

I laughed nervously.

"I have those too! And I remember getting bitten whenever Shinigami-sama was babysitting me in the Death Room when I was younger!" Maka exclaimed.

She also showed me one of her hands. There were similar tiny pricks.

I looked at them and squinted, trying to think back.

I got a sweatdrop on the back of my head... I actually did sort of remember biting both of them at one point. I remembered biting Kid more-so than Maka.

"Oh... heh heh..." I said, laughing nervously.

"See? I told you that they'd remember you." Stein said.

Half of the group looked confused, while Maka and Kid were just staring at me weirdly.

"S-Sorry... about... that...?" I said with an uneasy smile on my face.

Kid sighed. "It's no matter now. As long as you don't go biting me again."

"Same here." Maka said.

"I won't... unless you let me..." I joked a little. Kid smiled slightly.

"So... How do we know you're not one of those crazy people who thinks they're a vampire?" Soul asked.

"Yeah! If you were really a vampire, wouldn't you melt when water splashed you or something?!" Black Star asked.

"Black Star... Witches melt in water in stories... Vampires are supposed to turn to ash in sun light." Tsubaki corrected.

"That's what I said! Aren't you supposed to be turning into ash now?" Black Star said.

"I can assure both of you that Sai is the real deal. She comes from a line of vampires that are now extinct. There's a lot of misconceptions about humanoids that come from literature. I'm pretty sure that Medusa wouldn't have been a challenge to beat if simply pouring water on her would've killed her..." Stein said.

Suddenly, the group became a little uneasy.

"Well... I should be getting back to the lab now. I must make preparations for the resuming of classes tomorrow. See you all in homeroom." Stein said, seeing that he had made the situation a little awkward.

Once again, there was another awkward silence.

"Hey Soul." Black Star said, breaking it.

"What's up?" Soul asked.

"You think the girls can beat us now that they have another player on their team?" Black Star asked with a smirk on his face.

Soul returned his smirk. "Not a chance."

"I don't think so either." Kid added.

"We'll see about that!" I replied.


	5. Chp 5: Breaktime is Over

**Chapter Five:  
Breaktime is Over!  
**

"Okay! Go finish that as quick as you can! Shouldn't take the two of you long!" Shinigami said happily.

He had just finished explaining a mission that had been given to just me and Kid and his weapons.

"We'll take care of it right away, Shinigami-sama." I said with a little bow.

"We shall be back soon, father." Kid said, bowing as well.

"See ya!" Patty exclaimed.

Liz said nothing. She had seemed a little freaked out after our mission briefing. To be honest, I wasn't too excited about it either.

I walked out of the Death Room with Kid, Liz, and Patty. We walked down the hallway until we came across the Mission Board and slipped the "taken" dog tag onto our mission panel. Then we began to make our way to the exit of Shibusen. I was certainly nervous since this would be the first mission that I would ever be going on without Vergil... Though I was extremely curious to see what Kid could do. After all, he was the son of Lord Death, himself.

"Are you excited to go on this mission, Sai?!" Patty asked in an excited manner, as usual.

"Well eh... Are you?" I asked.

"Liz isn't! She's scared! She's scared of ghosts and goblins and spiders and clowns and-"

"I am not scared!" Liz yelled at her sister.

"Yes you are!" Patty said, laughing and pointing her pointer finger in her face.

"I just... would rather... be...- WELL! LOOK AT THAT! HERE WE ARE!" Liz said, as we arrived on the north balcony.

"Why'd you take us over here? Don't we need to drive to Alaska or something?" I asked. Alaska was where our mission was.

"Can you drive?" Kid asked.

I got a sweatdrop on my head. "No..."

Kid raised his hand in front of him and summoned a skateboard.

"Liz, Patty." He called to his weapons. Liz nodded and turned into her weapon form, a hand gun, spinning in mid air. Patty giggled and followed her lead, turning into the same exact weapon. Kid caught both of them in his hands. He held them in a weird way with his pinkies being his trigger fingers. Then he got on top of his skateboard and it lifted off the ground like a rocket.

"Show off..." I said as he finished his little show with a smirk.

"Hope those goggles around your head aren't just for show." Kid said as he was floating in mid air on his skateboard.

"Don't worry, they're not." I said before I lowered the goggles to my neck. I quickly put my hair up into a ponytail and then pulled the goggles over my eyes.

"Ikki." I called to my machina.

"I'm fancier than his weapons." Ikki said to me.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Liz yelled after hearing Ikki speak.

Her sister laughed. "She's getting scared and we haven't even reached the castle yet! We're still at school and she's scared!"

"Don't be mean!" I answered Ikki.

"What language is that?" Kid asked.

"Al Bhed... My native tongue. It's how I talk to Ikki." I answered Kid.

"Ikki?" Kid asked, even more confused than before.

"You'll see..." I answered with a smile. If Kid thought his little display that he put on impressed me... Boy would I impress him.

"You should count yourself lucky that you don't have to carry me!" I said to Kid as I pulled on gloves to make sure they wouldn't fall off.

"Are you that heavy...?" Kid asked.

"HEY!" I yelled at him.

He laughed a little.

"Yeah, he really is lucky... You'd crush him..." Ikki added.

"I DON'T NEED YOUR COMMENTS RIGHT NOW! YOU'RE KILLING MY 'COOL FACTOR'!" I yelled at Ikki. I must've looked crazy to Kid... To him, I probably looked like I was yelling at my shoes.

"How exactly are you going to get there without me carrying you?" Kid asked.

"Don't worry about that... Hey, wanna make a bet?" I asked Kid.

"Depends what it is." Kid answered.

"Last one who gets the the castle pays for food when we get back." I said.

A smile swept across Kid's face. "You're on. You better get running to the bus if you're going to make it."

"Time to fly, Ikki." I said.

"Roger that." Ikki answered as he started to glow a little.

I climbed up on top of the railing of the balcony and looked down... It was quite a long fall.

"What are you doing...?" Kid asked.

"Hope you have your wallet on you. I'm probably gonna be starving on the way back." I said right before I jumped.

"SAI!" Kid, Liz, and Patty all called.

Kid went flying after me. I closed my eyes as Ikki quickly made his way down to my left foot. I spread my legs apart and bent my knees to my chest as he materialized under me. My left foot was hooked into Ikki's trigger guard of his large gun form **(authors note: pics on my site, aeonsoul234 . webs . com) **as my right rested on his large barrel. I gripped his barrel with my right hand as my left remained in the air to stabilize myself. I took a deep breath in as I pushed Ikki's over-sized trigger with the left side of my left foot and angled Ikki upward by pushing down with my right foot. As my compressed wavelength shot out of his barrel, the energy looked much like the flames of a flamethrower, except they were a solid vermillion color. As the flames spewed out the Ikki's barrel, they made a sound that resembled the whistle of a firecracker.

"WOO!" I yelled in exhilaration as I raced up past Kid.

When I was about fifteen feet above him, I maneuvered Ikki to make a loop in the sky. Then I was off towards Alaska.

"Hurry up or I'll defeat the Afreet by the time you get there!" I called to Kid as I sped off.

A huge smile was plastered on my face.

"DID YOU SEE THAT? I THAT WAS SOO COOL!" I yelled.

"I did most of the work... All you did was jump off the side of a building." Ikki stated.

"I did work! I freakin' maneuvered us here!" I yelled at Ikki.

"Ok. Next time, I'll let you do the flying then." Ikki retorted.

I sighed in frustration. "You can't let me have one moment, can you?"

* * *

"Maybe racing here as fast as I could and leaving Kid in the dust wasn't such a good idea after all..." I said as I crept around a rather large and creepy garden. There was a thick fog that made seeing six feet in any direction hard. I was surrounded by overgrown, thick weeds and crabgrass as well as large trees that reached their branches out and the remains of wilting flowers. More often than I would've liked to, I'd pass a disturbing stone sculpture of a life sized human. Majority of them looked as if they were in pain or they were attempting to shield themselves from something. It was starting to freak the hell out of me...

My grip around Ikki tightened. "Damn it... I know I didn't land this far from that damn castle."

The castle was where the main Afreet that Kid and I were trying to hunt down resided. Shinigami had warned us that the Afreet led and was protected by a medium sized army of lesser Afreets. He also said that the castle "wasn't your average castle"... whatever that meant.

Ikki started to patronize me as usual. This time I wasn't so objected to it. I was actually extremely happy that he had the ability to speak and had such a "wonderful" personality at the moment. Unfortunately for me, what came out of his mouth was the last thing I wanted him to say. "Maybe if you weren't so concerned about stupid bets and food, you wouldn't be al- WAVELENGTH DETE-"

Before Ikki could finish his sentence, a huge blast of gold energy came out of nowhere. I rolled out of the way, dodging it.

"THE HELL WAS THAT?!" I yelled in Al Bhed as I turned around. There was a blinding glow that made me shield my eyes. When the glow had faded, a massive growling wolf demon that stood about twenty feet tall stood in front of me**(pics on site)**.

"That would appear to be a dog." Ikki answered.

"I do not need your sarcasm from you right now..." I said as I stared up at the wolf afreet.

Suddenly I heard a voice that sounded like a whisper, though it was as loud as any normal person would be if they spoke. The soft whisper was mixed with the eerie sounding deep male voice. The red slits eyes of the colossal wolf glowed as I heard the voice. It's mouth didn't move as it spoke; it stayed contorted the same way as it had been before while it was barring its fangs. I could still hear its low growl as I heard the voice in my head.

"I am the Guardian of the Great Garden of Oden. You are a trespasser here, Vampire... Here is where you will see your end!" It said.

The wolf demon quickly did a 360, hitting me hard with it's tail, which was enforced with a glowing gold energy coming from the ring at the end of it. I was sent flying back. I hit the ground roughly, tumbling on the floor.

I moaned in pain once I stopped tumbling. "Ah, shit..."

_"Vergil's definitely not going to like that one." _I thought.

* * *

**MAKA'S POINT OF VIEW**

It was the first time that I was attending the new "Dark Defense" class that Shinigami announced would be starting this morning. Only a selected few students in the DWMA were elected to take the course. Soul and I were two of them among Black Star and Tsubaki, Kid with Liz and Patty, Ox Ford and Harvar D. Eclair, Kilik Rung and Fire and Thunder, Kim Diehl and Jacqueline, as well as about ten more pairs/groups of elite one star meisters and their weapons. The class had two parts. The first part was a lecture that would inform students on the origin and battle tactics of witches as well as advanced Afreets and most of all... The Kishin. The second part was an actual physical contact class that would be used to teach us how to defend ourselves against certain techniques that may be used on us in the future. Three of my other courses had been temporarily suspended to make space for this one. It would take up a large chunk of my school day four days a week. Attendance was mandatory for every class unless you were to get special clearance from Shinigami; weirdly Kid, Liz, and Patty weren't there. I guessed that they had been sent on a mission. If that was the case, I wondered why Shinigami hadn't sent me along with Soul, Black Star, and Tsubaki with them...

The class was mainly taught by a new professor to the school while Sid helped acclimate him to teaching. Sid stated that he was here to help until the new professor, Vergil, could handle the class on his own. Vergil was probably no more than a decade older than me. Vergil bore a face that was very stern and emotionless. He made it clear to all of us that if we told anyone of the information we were learning in class, the consequences would be much worse than just failing the course. Anyone who blabbed about anything would have to answer to Shinigami. This was to keep a certain aura about the school. Incoming one stars and those who didn't excel above the class as we did were to be ask kept out of dealings about the Kishin as much as possible. Shinigami didn't want to keep them completely in the dark about it, as many of them were trapped inside of the independent cube with him when the Kishin awoke and witnessed the fight, but he didn't want to worry them either. The best thing that those one star meisters and weapons could do was to go about their days as usual. On the other hand, we were going to actually take part in the battle against the Kishin. The course was created to provide us with special attention and training in preparation for facing the Kishin and anyone else who supported him.

Everyone in the class eagerly listened and jotted down notes while Vergil lectured to the class. Even Black Star was paying attention... though he wasn't writing anything. He was in the middle of explaining the history of the Kishin, Asura. Sid sat at the desk while Vergil stood in the front and lectured. Suddenly, he stopped talking. Everyone looked at each other weirdly. Then, out of nowhere, a pink electricity came out of his body and shocked him hard.

Vergil yelled through clenched teeth as the electricity shocked him. He had bent down on one knee, his right arm wrapped around his mid section as if something had just hit him there. The class gasped as they watched what was happening. A couple screams were heard as well.

"Vergil!" Sid said, running over to aid him.

"Damn that girl..." he growled through his teeth. He stood straight up and took a deep breath.

"Class will resume in 15 minutes. Take a break." Sid announced.

We all rose from our seats and cleared from the classroom, completely confused about what had just happened.

* * *

I realized that Ikki was no longer in my hands and quickly scrambled to my feet and clumsily ran for him. Luckily, he had landed a couple feet in front of me.

"Ikki, field analysis!" I said as I grabbed him. I rested his butt on my right shoulder and held the his handle in my right hand, my right pointer finger ready on his trigger. My left hand remained on the left side of his barrel for extra support.

"No wavelength detected. Opponent shielding presence somehow." Ikki answered.

"Shit!" I cursed again.

"Given from taken hit and previously detected wavelength, opponent is a Ghost Type Afreet. Danger level high. Other abilities unknown at the moment." Ikki stated.

"Next time you're about to go flying, revert to a ring or something and stay on me." I said to him.

"Roger that." Ikki answered.

Great... I had a disappearing and reappearing Ghost Afreet on my hands. Even if he couldn't disappear and reappear, it would be difficult to see him through the fog. It seemed like it had only gotten thicker with the presence of the Afreet. On top of that, I didn't have my partner with me... I looked around me with Ikki ready to fire.

_"I wonder if Kid got lost here too... Maybe he's got his own hands tied with another Afreet... What the hell are we going to do if the entire army is like this...?"_ I thought._  
_

I sincerely hoped that Kid was still on his way over here. I also hoped that this was the one and only ghost wolf afreet that we would have to face here... If this was an example of a lesser Afreet, just how strong was the one commanding them..?


	6. Chp 6: Getting Lost

**Authors note: Sorry this one took so long... had quite a bit of writers block when it came to writing this chapter... In exchange for me taking so damn long, here is a long ass chapter for youu :)  
**

* * *

**Chapter Six :  
Getting Lost  
**

**DEATH THE KID  
**

"Damn it, where the hell is that girl?" I asked.

"I don't know, Kid... You'd better find her fast... This place gives me the creeps..." Liz replied.

I'd landed in a garden right in front of that castle and had been searching for Sai for roughly fifteen minutes now. I was on her tail for majority of the ride here... Until she cheated and did something that resembled a miniscule soul resonance with her weapon, causing her weapon to rapidly compress her wavelength. To my dismay, she left me behind in the dust after that.

"She's scared! She's scared!" Patty said with a laugh.

Suddenly, I saw what looked like a silhouette of someone that appeared to be standing. I'd found her.

"Finally, there you are!" I called.

I started running up to Sai.

"I guess I'm buy-..." I stopped running and trailed off as I didn't see a soul... The first time I saw Sai in the basketball court, I could see her soul without even trying. It was about the same size as mine. It had a pair of goggles decorating it and shimmered a vermillion color. Her soul was red, as the souls of most evil entities were because she was a vampire. Vampires came from evil origins... but her soul was a different shade than the Afreets that we usually encountered.

"Kid, what's wrong?" Liz asked.

I readied Liz and Patty as I walked over to the figure.

"It's a statue..." I said as I finally came up to it. The statue was of a woman. She had her arms at her sides and stood as if she were looking up at something. Even though her eyes were blank, I could still tell from the expression on her face that she had given up hope.

"Look, Liz! She's pretty!" Patty said.

"W-Why the hell is it just out here like that?! T-That's soo freakin' creepy!" Liz yelled.

"It's just a statue, Liz. This is a garden..." I said.

Then I began to look around... It was in complete ruin. Whoever made this garden had absolutely no idea what they were doing and put forth little effort. It disgusted me.

My eyes started to dart all over the place. "This statue... There's nothing mirroring it... Those pots aren't lined up.. There's weeds everywhere... This grass... This grass is so overgrown... It should be perfectly cut...-"

"Kid! This isn't the time for that! We have to find Sai!" Liz yelled.

"B-But... everything is... unsymmetrical... IT NEEDS FIXING! NO ONE'S BEEN TAKING CARE OF THIS GARDEN!" I yelled.

My eyes started to dart at all the imperfections again. I could only see things within about a six to eight foot radius because of the fog, but everything that I did manage to see was disastrous.

"KID, WATCH OUT!" Liz and Patty yelled at the same time.

Suddenly, I was hit hard with a blast of gold energy. I coughed up blood as it impacted me and was sent flying back. I recovered back onto my feet as tumbled on the floor and went trigger happy in the direction where the blast had come from.

"What the hell was that...?" I asked.

"It came outta nowhere! Like that bird poo when it fell on Liz's head the other day!" Patty said.

"Shinigami..." I heard a voice say.

The voice seemed like a combination of a whisper and a regular male. Still, no one was around.

"Who are you?" I asked, readying Liz and Patty once again.

* * *

**SAI**

I had Ikki at the ready, but I'd just been a sitting duck for about ten minutes. I had been trying to detect the soul of the wolf demon, but it was no use. I guessed that the only time that I would be able to see his soul was when he manifested himself to attack. All I could do was play the waiting game... It was making me extremely anxious. My fighting style wasn't the type to just counter attacks. I was the type to aggressively attack until my enemy fell, which Vergil said would be the end of me.

Suddenly, another energy blast came out of nowhere, leaving a trail behind it. I rolled out of the way to dodge.

"Ikki! Lock on!" I called.

"Roger!" Ikki responded.

I pointed Ikki in the direction that the blast came from and waited from him to respond.

"Error: Lock on failed. Wavelength undetected." Ikki stated.

"God damn it!" I yelled in frustration.

The same thing continued on for another thirty minutes. One easily dodged attack would happen. I'd dodge it and either shoot in the direction where it came from to hit nothing, or Ikki would try and lock onto the wavelength of the Afreet and fail.

"YOU'RE TWENTY TIMES MY SIZE, YA DAMN DOG! SHOW YOURSELF! STOP BEING A COWARD AND FIGHT ME FAIR!" I yelled.

No reply.

I yelled in frustration and kicked at the earth, making dust come up. In the middle of my cursing fit, Ikki spoke up.

"Trace ally wavelength detected." He stated.

Just as Ikki said that, the fog thickened. I smiled.

_"Kid... So that's why... He's playing with both of us to keep us separated." _I thought.

At least he was that smart.

"Don't think you can handle the both of us at the same time?" I asked loudly.

"Foolish..." echoed the voice of the Afreet.

The wind picked up, but the fog still remained everywhere. Out of nowhere, waves of flame and golden energy came flying at me from all directions. I dodged the first three, but was hit brutally by the fourth wave of energy. As I stumbled backward, another energy wave hit me in my back. I slammed into the floor and groaned in pain. I raised my head, only to be hit by another wave that sent me tumbling back. As I slowly and shakily recovered, I saw a figure coming down from above me. I rolled out of the way, dodging the huge paw of the Wolf Afreet that smashed down, creating a crater in the earth underneath me.

I was in between the wolf's two front paws. I looked up at it as it stared down at me. It roared at me loudly, but I was too distracted by the blood like substance that was dripping from its mouth. I licked my lips eagerly as my fangs popped out. I rolled under the wolf, dodging it as it tried to bite me. I landed in a squatting position. As I came up, I swung Ikki as hard as I could, hitting the wolf demon in its rib cage. The wolf demon wailed a little and jumped backwards. Once again I was in front of it.

I jumped out of the way as it did another 360, trying to hit me with it's energy enforced tail again.

"Not this time!" I yelled as I held down Ikki's trigger, setting the wolf demon ablaze.

It disappeared after a couple soul bullets hit it and manifested behind me. I ducked, dodging a swipe of its paw. It disappeared again and reappeared in a different place. I only saw a wave of energy coming towards me underneath a pair of glowing eyes. I rolled out of the way just in time to see that the place where I had just been had been turned into solid stone. Then I realized... Those statues... They were people who wandered in here.

I aimed Ikki right in the middle of the wolf's eyes, though I still couldn't see the rest of him, and held his trigger down. It seemed to have absolutely no effect since the wolf hadn't completely manifested itself. Suddenly, the eyes turned to the side, as if something had caught its attention. The Wolf Afreet roared. I saw a large ball of golden energy brewing. After a couple seconds it went flying away.

* * *

**DEATH THE KID**

I was walking around with Liz and Patty held tightly in my hands. I was fighting the urge to either attempt to fix everything that was wrong in the garden or to just curl up in a ball on the floor and cry about it. I couldn't do that right now... Someone had just tried to attack us. It bothered me even more that I couldn't sense the wavelength of whoever did...

I was just alone with Liz and Patty... or so it seemed. I wouldn't be able to tell if there was someone ten feet in front of me with this fog.

Out of nowhere, a huge ball of golden energy came flying out at me. The energy looked exactly like the attack that had hit me beforehand.

"Kid!" Liz yelled, just to make sure my attention was on it.

This time it was. I jumped backwards to get out of the way. Just as I did another little jump backwards to get some more space... I toppled backwards over something hard that was about the height of my knee. I hit my head hard on the floor, Liz and Patty flying out of my hands.

"You okay, Kid?!" Patty asked.

I scrambled to grab both of them and got up.

"What the hell was...-" I stopped talking when I saw another statue.

This one was of a man. He sat down in the fetal position, his head resting on his knees and his arms around them. Now that I had gotten up, I could see that the statue was looking at me... Unlike the rest he was smiling. It looked like he was laughing.

"THAT WASN'T THERE BEFORE! AND WHY THE HELL IS HE SMILING?! IT'S CREEPY! I WANNA LEAVE!" Liz yelled.

I narrowed my eyes as I stared at the statue. Something weird was going on here. I hadn't moved from the place I was standing in before from the first time I had gotten attacked. I was perfectly sure that there was no statues... I raised Liz and Patty and shot the head of the statue, making it explode. Its body remained in the same place for a couple seconds before I completely obliterated it.

"There... Now we won't be tripping over that again." I said.

Once again, there was nothing but complete silence. I had no idea if it was just because I had gotten startled by the statue or not, but now I felt like I was being watched. All I could do was hope that seeing souls would be enough in this fog... I readied my weapons again, waiting for something to happen. When nothing happened after another two minutes or so, I sighed and then started to walk around. Right as I took my first step, something emerged from the ground and grabbed both my ankles. A solid object came flying at me. I shot it before it could hit me.

Then I looked down. I was grabbed by... stone hands. I shot at the hands to free myself and then jumped away, getting into a fighting stance. Suddenly, a mob of figures that used to be stagnant statues was walking towards me. There looked to be about twenty of them.

"NOW THEY'RE MOVING?!" Liz yelled.

Patty laughed. "Look Liz! One of them is a little girl!"

"DON'T TELL ME THINGS LIKE THAT!" Liz cried.

"Don't worry Liz, I won't drop you again." I said.

She was silent for a second as I started to shoot the incoming statues down.

"K-Kid... Why couldn't you detect the wavelength of the statues that grabbed you before?" Liz asked.

"Because they don't have souls..." I answered as I shot down the last of the mob.

"How are they moving then?" Patty asked.

"Someone's controlling them... We're going to find out who soon." I answered.

* * *

**SAI**

I had decided to play the same game that the Wolf Afreet was playing with me. I would stay in one place until an attack came and just continuously dodge. There was no point in me attempting to hide from it. This was its territory. It got pissed off getting a taste of its own medicine and finally manifested itself in front of me. I smirked... Finally...

Just to make sure this wasn't another trick, I continued to dodge its attacks. Now it was attacking me more physically rather than using its energy to blast at me.

"That's more like it!" I yelled as I jumped back to dodge a forth swipe of the wolf's huge paw.

"Ikki, soul shell mode!" I directed my machina.

"Roger, roger." Ikki responded.

His barrel glowed and changed from a revolving machine gun barrel to a missile launcher barrel. I raised him again and steadied myself before I fired at the wolf. I tensed up, resisting the recoil. The wolf was his by the second soul shell I fired, but quickly disappeared. Then it started to charge at me, disappearing and reappearing from one side to the other as it ran (**authors note: think of pikachu's quick attack**)

"Alright, puppy... Let's play." I said with a smile.

I stood my ground until the last minute I could, rolling right under the wolf's huge body right before it headbutted me.

I laughed as I came up right behind it and shot a weak shell at its behind. The wolf's quickly spun around with its teeth barred as it growled at me.

Its two toned voice echoed in my mind again. "Don't taunt me, vampire. You'll die and serve me... just as the rest have..."

_"The rest...? What the hell does he mean by that? There's no one else-"_ My thoughts were interrupted when something emerged out of the ground beneath me.

Before I could react, stone hands grabbed my ankles as what used to be a buried statue fully stood up and swung me around. It threw me as if I were a shot put, right towards the open mouth of the wolf. It was as if the whole world was moving in slow motion. If I didn't do something... I'd get chomped to little bits and pieces.

"Shit! Ikki, barrel biter!" I commanded.

"Roger" Ikki responded as he quickly compressed my soul energy around his barrel, making it glow red.

I spun around and slammed Ikki down on the wolf demon's nose as hard as I could. The wolf demon's head slammed into the ground. Since my wavelength had been charged into Ikki's barrel it had helped me pack much more of a punch than I could manage on my own. I also had a harsh meeting with the grass below me, but I recovered quickly. Suddenly, all the statues that I had stumbled upon before were closing in on me... I had to end it now. I turned around and faced where the wolf demon was. Then I repositioned Ikki on my right shoulder.

"Ikki, Soul Amplification!" I yelled.

"Engaging." Ikki responded.

My soul enlarged itself as it created a wind around me. Ikki glowed brightly and transformed into a gun that was three times the size that he was before. The designs on him had also become much more elaborate and detailed. A small glow had crept from him up to my head, where large soundproof headphones that were attached to a green lens that covered my right eye that had a bullseye on them as well as a bunch of statistics on the status of my amplification with Ikki. I knelt down on one knee as he finalized his transformation. Red glowing loops went back and forth over the length of his extremely large barrel, which was went from about 6-7 inches in diameter to about two feet. A red electricity was sparking from parts of him as well.

Ikki stated the most important factors on the amplification. "Lock on complete. Amplification Strength at 74%. Noise level at 80%."

I pulled down on Ikki's trigger and a red glow started to manifest itself in Ikki's barrel.

"Ready to fire in 3... 2... 1..." Ikki stated.

I tensed up as Ikki started to count down, getting ready to resist the recoil.

"Boom." I said as the countdown ended.

A millisecond later, a huge red column of soul energy shot out Ikki. An eardrum popping scream accompanied it. This was much like the technique that I had used to fly over here, but it was extremely amplified. The sound was similar to the sound produced when I used that ability except it was much, much louder and had the sound of a jet taking off mixed in with it. I held down the trigger for for three seconds after the shot had been fired. It had taken almost all the strength out of me to resist the recoil coming from Ikki as I dug the ball of my right foot and my left knee into the ground. As I released the trigger, I let Ikki's barrel drop to the floor and stayed in the same place, breathing hard. I could see the remains of walking statues in front of me, but I couldn't see the wolf. The fog was still thick...

I lifted my head as something move in front of me.

"Fuck..." I said.

* * *

**DEATH THE KID**

I spun around as I felt a wavelength.

"Kid, watch out!" Liz yelled.

I jerked back and ducked just in time to dodge a swipe of one of the walking statues who had gotten too close to me.

"Quit staring at the rubble, Kid!" Liz said.

"No, there's a wavelength..." I said as I continued dodging attacks from the five statues that were attacking me. I was trying to hard to concentrate on pinpointing who the wavelength belonged to and where it was to try and counterattack. Suddenly, the wavelength had increased in strength.

"It's Sai!" I said.

I summoned Beelzebub and went flying off into her direction, leaving the statues that were attacking me in the dust and maneuvering around others that popped out of the ground and attempted to grab me. I heard a sound similar to the one that I had heard before when she was riding her gun here, but it was much louder and felt a large amount of energy.

_"Is this her... Soul Resonance? How can she resonate with that weapon of hers... It didn't have its own soul..." _I thought.

The sound continued on for a couple seconds and then it was gone.

_"Shit! I still don't know where she is!" _I cursed myself in my mind.

I sensed another soul... It was a similar to the one that I had faintly sensed before when I heard someone call to me. I also heard a female scream accompanied by a loud crash.

"Sai!" I yelled.

I was close enough to sense Sai's soul even though she was no longer resonating with her weapon. I cautiously made my way to her as quick as I could. Her body rested in a clearing of broken trees... which I guessed she had smashed into. Once I was close enough, I ditched Beelzebub and it disappeared back into the underworld. I ran up to her with Liz and Patty still in my hands and propped her up in my lap after I knelt down.

"Sai, what happened? Where is it?!" I asked.

"B-But... I h-hit it..." she mummered.

Then she was out cold...

More statues began to emerge around us. I also felt that familiar soul length lingering in the fog... It was close. Much closer than I would've liked it to be right now.

What the hell was I supposed to do now?


End file.
